Playing with Fire
by idontlikenoodles
Summary: Edward and Bella met each other for the first time at a street corner. Then, five years later, they reunite when they both become inmates at Forks Community Prison. Their forbidden love affair becomes one of passion, secrets and lies.
1. Chapter 1

Running To You - Preface

**Disclaimer - I do not own any of the characters...or any part of twilight for that matter. I do own a cat who just threw up a furball. Nice.**

**Chapter Count - This story is not prewritten, so updates will be weekly and I'm planning for about 30 chapters.**

**This is just the preface, normal chapters will be longer.**

**Enjoy and don't forget to review!**

* * *

><p>I never meant for it to come to this.<p>

We're sprinting in the darkness, in the pitch-black that is coating us like a sheet. It could protect us, they might never be able to spot us, or it might destroy us...we might not be able to spot them.

'Keep running!' Edward whisper-shouts to me.

'I'm...try...ing' I gasp for air. We've been sprinting for an hour solid.

I keep pushing my legs forward, trying to keep up with your pace. You have longer legs than me, your strides are longer, quicker...I'm falling behind.

'Bella! Keep going, you can do it! Just keep running, we'll be safe soon, I promise!'

'I can't!' I wheeze.

'You have too, Bella!'

I can't take anymore. My body can't take any more. I fall to the ground. He keeps running.

'Ed...ward.' I wheeze. He comes to a halt and turns to look at me, and look at the scene behind me. The police are catching up now. I can hear the sirens. I see the flashing lights of red and blue in his shocked face when I realise it's over.

'No.' An almost feral growl escapes his mouth. He runs to me and swings me over his shoulder. My legs dangle beneath me as he runs. I can hear his almost steady heartbeat through his shirt. He's not even flinching in this almost burning cold.

The sirens stop. We're safe. For now.

A few more hours after being set back down on my feet and sneaking around the city, we come across a small, run-down and slightly disgusting motel.

Perfect.

We walk in like we own the place and offer cash up front. The bored-looking, acne covered teen from behind the desk takes it with a sudden gleam in his eyes when Edward tells him to keep the change. I don't bother asking Edward where he got the money from.

'No, like, bags, sir?' The same teen reappears again, and asks us in an annoying, nasal, brittle voice.

'No. We're just crashing for tonight and then we're off to see relatives who live just round the corner. Our luggage got lost on the airline.' Edward shrugged nonchalanty. I just stood there nodding dumbly.

'Okay then sir, your room is, like, just down that hallway-' He motioned to the left. '-And then take, like, two rights, and your room is the, like, third one down.' He tells us. His name badge reads Ben.

'Thanks, Ben.' I say before Edward can say anything. I don't want to seem like the dumb one. 'We appreciate it.'

'Yeah, no problem.' Ben had lost his interest now that there was no more money involved. 'Can you go now? I don't wanna sound, like, rude, but like, there are like _millions_ of other, like, people that wanna come in here, like, tonight?' He says it like it is a question.

Me and Edward look behind us. I can almost hear the crickets sounding and see the tumbleweed rolling by at the isolation in this place.

'Oh-kay..' Edward says in two parts, sarcastically. 'We'll just be going up to our room then.'

Ben looks up at us with an expression that only teenagers can pinpoint. 'Do you, like, actually think I, like, care?'

'Well...yes.' I said. Edward stifles a laugh. 'Because just two seconds ago you were telling us to leave because this place was gonna be swamped?'

'Yeah, like, whatever.' He says. 'Can you just go now? I wanna watch some, like, TV and I'm not allowed to do that when there are, like, people here.' Me and Edward exchange a glance before grabbing the keys off of the desk and shuffling off towards our room.

We take each others hands and look into each others eyes. 'One.' You say.

'Two.' I continue.

'Three!' We both say together. Then we simultaneously collapse onto the bed, groaning at the heavenly feeling of the soft mattress and the soft as feath duvet covers.

Now a normal person would say that this bed was going to give them a sore back, maybe it had fleas or something in it. But not me and Edward. Because we weren't normal. We had history. We had records that were in no way squeaky clean. And apparently the law doesn't like that.

I push my body further into his and cuddle into him, both of us revelling in the happy moment.

'Edward?' I ask.

'Yes, my love?' He replies while softly stroking my hair.

'Do you think...do you think we'll get away? Do you really think that we can start new lives together? Or do you...do you think that it's just a pipe dream?' I regret the words as soon as they leave my mouth.

He sits up. 'A pipe dream? Is that all this was to you, just some old pipe dream and you thought you'd take me along for the ride? Is that all this was?'

'No, Edward, it was nothing like that, I just me-'

'Spare me it, Bella. If you don't want this, I'll make it easier for you.' He stood up and headed for the door.

'Edward! No, wait!'

'Wait? Wait? Why should I _wait?_' His voice was laced with venom.

'B-because...listen.'

'Listen to _what?' _ I don't answer so he could listen to the almost-silence. A panicked look settled across his perfect features.

'They're here, Edward!'

'Crap, crap, crap! How did they find us? We jus-' He carried on like that, pacing up and down the room, running his hands through his hair and tugging on it, and me perched on the end of the bed, all the muscles in my body tense and ready to spring.

'Bella!' Edward shouts from across the room. I jump.

'What?'

'We have to run. Now!' He grabs my hand and pulls me out the door, towards the fire exit when I hear them coming up the stairs behind us.

'Edward...we're not going to make it!'

'Don't think like that, Bella!'

'I'm just being _realistic, _Edward!'

Edward stops at the door. He grabs both of my hands with his. They're only a few flights down from us now.

'Love, we're going to make it. Wherever you go, I go, remember?' He nuzzles his nose against mine. My brain is instantly a blur.

'Y-yeah. Together.' He wraps his pinkie around mine.

'AGAINST THE WALL!' They're here.

One look into Edward's eyes tells me all I have to know. We have to run.

Edward runs towards the door with me close behind, and when he pushes it open..

He falls.

I stop.

I scream.

I'm being pulled backwards.

Handcuffs are being put on my wrists.

I'm being pushed downstairs.

Into a car.

And Edward?

Edward fell.

There was no fire escape.

There were no stairs. There was only a thirty-foot drop.

I heard him screaming.

I heard his last words.

'Bella!'

Edward is dead.

* * *

><p><strong>Reviews?<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone!**

**RL is being a bitch so this chapter isn't as long as I would've liked. Sorry about that. Next week's will be a lot longer.**

* * *

><p>I had lived in Pheonix for eleven of my thirteen years so far on this planet. When my mom left my dad, Charlie, she took me with her and we lived with her mom and dad until she found a job and got enough money for us to live on. She never told me what her job was but she never wore many clothes and always went out with a huge jacket on, lots of makeup and thigh-high leather boots. I decided not to ask.<p>

When my mom found a place for us to live, we moved in there. It was a run down block of apartments but it was at least somewhere that had a roof over our heads and kept us warm in winter. It had uncomfortable beds and the smell coming from the damp on the walls made my head spin.

I moved to Forks on account of a bad argument with my mom. She was kind of neglecting me, spending too much time with her new fiancée, Phil and hardly any time with me. She only ever talked to me once a week at most and that was to tell me that she was going out for the night with Phil, not even asking if I was okay with that, and to tell me she'd left fifty dollars on the counter for my food for the week.

I'd gotten kinda fat, not overly huge but not just plump either. With my mom leaving me money to spend for myself I could buy anything I wanted, which of course wasn't purely healthy options. I'd always buy a fruit salad in my weekly shops to try and make me feel better about myself, even though it never got eaten and had to be thrown in the bin every time.

I had to start spending some of that money on clothes as well and that was hard, since there wasn't very many clothing lines for young teenage girls who didn't even reach five feet and were considered fat. I didn't have very many friends at school because I shopped in charity shops and they couldn't see past my exterior. That's when I began to question everything.

Was there a meaning to my life? Was there a purpose to me being here? I didn't know any of the answers and I didn't know who did.

-PWF-

My mom and Phil came in drunk one night, and while Phil went straight to their bedroom, my mom came into my room.

'Isabella.' She'd slur in my face.

'Yes, mom?' I'd ask, trying not to annoy her, or give her a reason to get angry at me, or worse, leave me on my own again.

She looked down for a second, and prodded at my stomach. I instincively pulled away. She looked up at me, angry, and yanked me back to her, by the hair.

'M-mom, what are you...what are you doing? Let go!' I struggled against her, but I wasn't very strong and my muscles were flimsy and weak.

'Why are you so fat, Isabella?' She'd spit in my face.

'I-I don't know m-mom.'

'Well you must know!' She jabbed a finger in my face. 'And these zits! They're disgusting! I can honestly say I am disgusted to call you my daughter!'

I sat there, staring at her, my hair in her hand and my chin on the floor. I knew my mother was horrible, but this was just plain cruel! I knew I wasn't the best looking girl, but I couldn't help it! What could you expect of a girl with basically no parents?

And then it hit me. I _did _have parents. I had my dad, and even though I hadn't seen him since I was two years old, I'm sure he'd treat me better than.._she_ did.

'I-I'm sorry m-mom.' I apologised feebly.

'Don't be sorry! Your apologies are useless! _You_ are useless!' She slapped me, hard, round the face. I pulled back even further, and my hair ripped from my scalp, causing me to scream out. She hit me again, harder. I felt something hot and sticky on my face. I reached out a shaky hand to touch it. I looked at my fingers. _Blood._

'I-I don't l-like it h-here any-' I hiccuped. '-Anymore!'

'Why should I give a damn what you like and don't like? You're just a child. An insignificant, annoying, useless, fat, ugly, pest of a child!'

I felt the tears fall down my face in huge streams. 'I w-want to l-live with d-dad!' I wailed.

'Fine! Live with your father! Finally, thank God, you're going to be leaving me in peace! I've wanted this from the moment I walked out on him. I walked out on him, that stupid little house in that stupid little green town. The moment I walked out that door I regretted taking you. But I couldn't have gone back in there, no, because that would destroy my _pride_!' She sneered in my face. 'The only reason you're even _alive_ today is because of my-' She slapped me. '-fucking-' She hit me again. '-_PRIDE!' _ She clawed at my face with her long nails that I used to adore, and then I felt a blow to my face.

The black edges of my vision were closing in. I seen stars and my mother's disgusted face went blurry. And to think, when I was young I used to want to be just like my Mommy. Now I wanted to wretch at the thought.

'You are _not_ my daughter.' She said. 'My daughter would be a beautiful, blonde, skinny girl who loved her mother and gave her peace. _You_ are horrible. _You_ are ugly. _You_ will _always_ be alone.'

I began to cry as violent sobs wrecked through my body. Why was she saying these things to me? I didn't understand what I done!

'Isabella Swan, I hate you.' Was the last words that I heard before the black took over.

-PWF-

When I woke up, I was in the hospital and my dad was by my bedside.

'I'm so sorry, Bells.' He'd say. He was the first person in the world that didn't call me Isabella. I kind of liked it. _Bella._ When I moved to Forks I could start all over again.

'Don't be sorry, Charlie.' I'd reply. It didn't feel right to call him dad. He didn't complain.

He told me he would be taking me home straight from the hospital, and that he'd cleared everything up with social services. We'd have to come back to Pheonix for my mom's trial, of course, but that would be in a few months time. I would be enrolling in school after.

When I arrived at Forks, the house the police cruiser rolled up at felt vaguely familiar, but nothing more. There was two bedrooms and just one bathroom. Great.

I went to the bathroom one morning and caught a flash of red out of the corner of my eye. It was in my panties. 'Oh shit!' I whispered. 'I'm gonna die! No-ones supposed to bleed out of there!' Little did I know what it really was since I had never had 'the talk' from my mom and that certainly wasn't something Charlie would touch on.

I shoved a ball of tissue down my panties and waddled back through to my room. I typed it into google and I felt my eyes widen when I learned the answer to my worries. I spent an hour learning all the facts - not something I recommend, it can be slightly disturbing - and grabbed my purse and hurried to the corner shop, glad to see that Charlie's cruiser had left.

I waddled/ran to the shop and picked up the biggest packet of towels I could find. The woman at the counter gave me a sympathetic look. 'First time, honey?' She asked me, pity evident in her voice. I nodded once, awkwardly. 'Don't worry about it. You'll be just fine. You know you're growing up now.' She told me. Seriously, could this get any more awkward? I just wanted to go home!

Once she finally finished her lecture I put it in a carrier bag, put it in my purse and ran home. I put it in following the instructions it said on the packet, and then I was left to deal with the issue of where I was going to have to put it. I shared a bathroom with Charlie, so leaving it in there for all to see wasn't an option. I decided to keep it in my room and just take it through when I needed it. That wasn't one of my best days, but deep inside of me I was excited. I, Bella Swan, would be starting not only a new life, at a new school, in a new state, but I would also be a _woman_.

-PWF-

Charlie got the groceries for us, which was a relief since I couldn't yet trust myself to buy myself things anymore, apart from clothes, new ones of which I wasn't buying until I was slim.

I only eat the healthy foods from the fridge, which was really hard, because I was used to eating completely differently so my stomach hurt for a while from changing diet so drastically. But I knew that change, in this case, would be good.

My zits went away, one by one until I was left with skin I adored. It wasn't amazing, but it was a huge improvement from what it used to look like and the scratch marks from my mother's claws were fading rapidly. I was only left with faint scars across my face that were almost impossible to see when I wore foundation over the top. I was left with only a few blackheads. My hair began to look fuller and shinier, and it took a lot longer to look greasy.

My weight began to drop off. Eating less and healthier made the first few pounds fall off in almost the drop of a hat, but I had to work hard at shedding the other ones. I got up early in the mornings, while all of the other kids my age were at school, and I went for jogs. I didn't want them to see me and make fun of me.

Going on jogs really wore me out at the start, and I had to go home earlier than I had planned a few times. But after a while the burn in my legs came slower and less painfully and I got stitches less frequently. I weighed myself once a week, and after 2 months I was proud to admit I had lost 30 pounds. I went to the doctor's (by myself, this was legal in Forks) and he told me that even though I had lost a lot of weight in such a short space of time, I had done it right by excersising and eating healthily.

When Charlie took me to Pheonix for the trial, my mom lost and she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She was given 10 for child abuse and neglection, 5 for drug possession (the police had found a stash of it in her bedroom) and she was sent to rehab whilst she was in prison for her alcohol addiction. Phil left her the night before and I was glad he had seen sense. I was glad to see the last of her, and glad to say that that chapter in my life was over.

In the airport on the way to boarding the plane _home _- because Forks was home to me know - I noticed something. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of this beautiful thin girl. I wanted to be like her. I looked round to get a better view, and realised I was standing beside a mirror.

It wasn't that I was conceited or stuck-up or was vain about my appearance, because that wasn't it at all. I'd just...changed. So much. My hair was back to it's natural waves and it was shiny and flowing freely down my back, and as it was growing faster now it almost reached my butt. I had clearer skin, there was only the faint outline of a zit that desperately had to be popped the night before.

I was pretty damn pleased with myself. Hard work and determination helped me get this far.

I was no longer Isabella Swan, little shy girl who never had anything to say for herself and blended into the background. We can all see how far that got me. No, I was Bella Swan, confident, funny, determined.

-PWF-

On my first day at Forks Middle School I had to get dropped off by Charlie in his police cruiser outside the school gates. I was mortified. I cycled to school every day from then on.

I ended up making friends with a girl from my Calculus class. Her name was Jessica and she took me under her wing and introduced me to all of her friends that sat at the same table at lunch. I became friendly with another girl called Lauren.

They were nice to me; they shown me where the toilets where and they both had most of their classes with me so they shown me where they were too. They had pointed out all of the kids to me; not like it was hard work, going to a school where only 400 odd people attended.

They asked me to go out with them on Friday night, and I agreed but I had to be in by curfew, which was 10, and it would stay that way until I was 16 according to Charlie. He said he 'wanted to do it right this time.' I didn't ask what 'it' was but I just took a guess that it was the whole parenting thing. I guess he had had quite a break from that.

On that Friday night we took the bus down to what they called the 'Reservation.' We met up with a few of the kids from there, and one seemed particularly friendly with me. His name was Jacob, I think. I got to know him that night and I really liked him. I felt more comfortable around him than I did with some of the others around here. I decided I'd stick with him for tonight.

'Bella?' Someone holllered from the other side of the campfire.

'Yeah?' I called back.

'Fancy a drink?' What I suspected was Jessica's voice replied. With those three words I felt my whole body still. I knew they weren't talking about orange juice.

I..I couldn't..I just..No. I couldn't drink. I didn't want to end up like my mom. Cruel, bitter, alone.

'Em...no thanks. Not tonight.' I said, trying to play it down. I didn't want to drink, but I didn't want to be seen as Bella who Didn't Drink or Bella the Downer or something.

'Why not Bella? It's not as if we're going to poison you or anything!' I laughed but I don't think Jessica was fooled by the too high-pitched, nervous noise that escaped my mouth. 'I know that Jess!' Cue another high-pitched giggle. 'I'm just..not in the mood. I live with Charlie, remember? Chief of Police?' I was grateful for the sudden inspiration that hit me.

'Oh yeah, that's right.' Jess said. Thank God it didn't take much to fool her. She wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, if ya know what I mean. 'Well..couldn't you just have _one? _He won't notice if you just have one. I even have breath mints here to take before we go home so parents don't get suspicious! Come on Bella!'

I really really didn't want to do it. There was nothing I didn't want to do more, or everything I wanted to do less than...you know what, never mind. I didn't want to do it.

'No thanks Jess. Tomorrow night, maybe. Charlie's working tomorrow night.'

'Come on, Bella. Don't live your life around your dad and just have some fun with your friends!' But that was just the thing. I was so used to living my life _around_ people that I wasn't used to living it _with_ them.

I finally caved in. 'Okay, Jess. Just one bottle.' I intended on not even finishing that bottle, and instead sipping on it all night. I did just that, even though the whole time my body was craving more, more of the magic potion that made me forget all my stress. But I fought it. I was strong, and I would stay strong. I would have to. I would not end up like my mother.

I would never end up like my mother.

* * *

><p><strong>Thoughts?<strong>

**Leave it in a review. More reviews means faster chapters!**


End file.
